Category: Science

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Did You Know That Mass Extinction Events Happen Every 27 Million Years?

Right now, we’re in the middle of a mass extinction event, in which we are in danger of losing hundreds, maybe thousands, species of animals forever.

It’s sad to think about, this morbid marking of time passing, of the marks we humans leave on the planet, but recent evidence suggests it’s not a novel event at all.

Image Credit: iStock

In fact, the mass extinction of land-dwellers – amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds – cycles around every 27 million years.

The study also found that these events align with major asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions, which could have encouraged the acceleration of these events, says lead author Michael Rampino, a biology professor at New York University.

“It seems that large-body impacts and the pulses of internal Earth activity that create flood-basalt volcanism may be marching to the same 27-million-year drumbeat as the extinctions, perhaps paced by our orbit in the galaxy.”

66 million years ago, 70% of all species – land and sea – suddenly went extinct in the aftermath of a large asteroid or comet collision.

This study examined the record of mass-extinctions of land-dwelling animals and concluded that they coincided with the extinctions of ocean life as well.

Image Credit: iStock

Until our current mass extinction event, every one previous seems to have happened alongside a catastrophic even like we mentioned earlier, and some events – like comet showers – also appear every 26-30 million years.

The planets also cycle through the Milky Way in the same period of time, the movements creating conditions that would stress and potentially kill off life on Earth due to widespread dark and cold, wildfires, acid rain, and ozone depletion.

Image Credit: Pexels

Those massive volcanic eruptions – flood-basalt eruptions – could also have come into play.

“These new findings of coinciding, sudden mass extinctions on land and in the oceans, and of the common 26- to 27-million-year cycle, lend credence to the idea of periodic global catastrophic events as the triggers for the extinctions.

In fact, three of the mass annihilations of species on land and in the sea are already known to have occurred at the same times as the three largest impacts of the last 250 million years, each capable of causing a global disaster and resulting mass extinctions.”

Ramptino adds,

“The global mass extinctions were apparently caused by the largest cataclysmic impacts and massive volcanism, perhaps sometimes working in concert.”

What do you think about this information? Could an extinction event be coming sooner than we had anticipated based on this new theory?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

The post Did You Know That Mass Extinction Events Happen Every 27 Million Years? appeared first on UberFacts.

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This is Why the Discovery of Water on the Sunlit Moon Is Such a Game-Changer

You’ve probably noticed that whenever scientists find water in outer space, they get super excited about it.

Unless you’re a scientist yourself, or maybe a space enthusiast, you might not know why we’re supposed to be so amazed and excited, too, though – and we just can’t stand for that.

Image Credit: Pexels

NASA has always known there is water on the sunlit side of the moon, but late last year, telescope observations revealed that it exists in more abundance than anyone had thought.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) confirmed that water exists across the lunar surface, not just in cold, shadowed places – even in the Clavius Crater, which is visible from Earth.

Here’s a video about how they did it.

There are several theories about how the water got there, including that micrometeorites could have deposited water as they rained down, or that hydrogen carried from the Sun’s solar winds interacts with oxygen in the moon’s soil to create the water, but discussions are ongoing.

Another mystery scientists are looking to solve is how the water accumulates there, and how and where it is stored.

Image Credit: Pixabay

But back to the question at hand – why are scientists so exited?

Along with the obvious thrill of discovery, they’re also looking to figure out whether the existence – and the continued existence – of water across the lunar surface could mean less trouble for astronauts who want to visit (or even for those who might want to stay on a planned lunar base near the South Pole).

As of now, NASA still plans to land in that location, and eventually establish a permanent base where they know water ice exists in nearby craters. The highlands in the area also catch sunlight, which will be essential for the planned solar power collectors.

One of the reasons NASA hasn’t been back to the moon is that, for a long time, the moon was assumed to be dry. That changed when a probe found the water ice at the lunar poles, and then on subsequent missions, confirmed by NASA and other organizations.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Dr. Paul Spudis, who worked on the majority of these robotic missions, was the first to realize what this could mean for additional manned missions to the moon.

There are great resources on the moon, but it’s the water that could enable us to be able to access the rest of them – whether it’s used for drinking, refueling, for crops, or something else, it’s a most precious resource that could be a key to making life beyond Earth possible.

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Former Flat-Earthers Discuss What Made Them Realize They Were Wrong

I’ve been fascinated by conspiracy theory subcultures since back when they were…not electing our government officials.

And it’s troubling, watching people hold firmly to beliefs that don’t stand up to even the barest scrutiny, and stand in defiance of literally every scrap of available evidence.

So, what do we do? Is there a way out? That’s what Reddit user jbarms wanted to know.

Former Flat Earthers. What made you come round? from AskReddit

As many pointed out, jbarms should probably have used the “serious” tag, as the thread was overrun by hundreds of terrible jokes.

But sprinkled in among them were a few real stories of people who’d changed their minds, or worked to change the minds of others.

Let’s have a look.

1. “That’s how big the earth is.”

I convinced a flat earther, temporarily, by asking him if it was possible for a sphere to be so large that you could not tell it was a sphere my simply being on the surface of it.

It took him a while, I used an analogy of a extremely long line that was so slightly curved you could not tell so by looking at a small section of it.

Eventually he said yes to the sphere and I told him that was how big the earth is.

A few days later he reverted, most of these people aren’t mentally stable, they believe in a lot of conspiracies.

– McClain3000

2. “None of this would work at all.”

I talked to a flat-earther about my job working for a company that tracks ship locations, routes, and speeds by satellite. We also had ways of monitoring carbon emissions based on fuel consumption and known weather conditions. None of this would work at all if the earth was flat. Not a jot of it.

I could only explain the most basic concepts, but it was enough for him to understand and realize that I was right and that he’d been convinced by someone who had no practical experience of the spherical nature of the Earth. I think that’s what really did it – my experience was really tangible. This happens then this happens then we measure this etc etc… no theory, just practice. A bit like showing a child a rock dropping to the ground in order to explain gravity, rather than giving them the whole theoretical shebang. Y’know?

– Administrative-Task9

3. “Why?”

A serious answer here

The thing that made me stop was just the question “why would nasa lie to you”

– The_Holy_Fork

4. “They mostly make me sad.”

I spent about a year infiltrating the flat Earth community on Instagram. I garnered a decent following with an account dedicated to flat earth travel photos (an intentionally absurd premise).

In that time I learned a quite a bit about the community including how to discern the trolls from the real deal. The majority of legit flat earthers are extremely distrustful of anything the government says or does. These same people are 9/11 truthers, Holocaust deniers, and anti-vaxxers and they connect these conspiracies together. Many of them have also attached flat Earth theory to religion, magic, or mysticism.

Before my infiltration I’d always considered conspiracies fun. Like they were the fan fiction of real life. Now they mostly make me sad. For all the phony accounts like mine, there are still plenty of people out there willing to drop a couple of hundred dollars on a flat Earth convention.

– Zelph_Onandagus

5. “Time away to detox.”

Not a flat earther. But I was a 9-11 “truther” I guess you could say–insofar as I thought it was an inside job. I was heavily influenced and believed in multiple conspiracies in the Zeitgeist film as well. There was a never ending source of dark, shadowy “they’s and them’s” controlling everything behind the scenes.

I think there were a few factors that helped me escape that:

• Losing my father. It was such a life changing event at that age that it made me reconsider everything in my life.

• Some light training in evaluating information. I learned about how to vet sources, primary, whether something was actually news or just an opinion/editorial, etc.. Ironically, this education came before I was duped. After my dad died, suddenly this started to kick in more.

• Lack of time/means to dig myself a deeper hole. I started college shortly after my father passed and that + a full time job took up all my time. I had none to buy further into the newest crazy bullsh*t. I had no Facebook/Twitter/IG/etc.. No smart phone or texting. My primary use of Reddit once I discovered it was for r/Naruto, r/Bleach, rage comics, and advice animals.

So all in all, I think the time away gave me time to detox. If I had been on social media as I discovered those things, I can only imagine I very well may have become a Q believer as well.

Looking back I see how gullible I was in that moment, fooled by the onslaught of half truths and clever “logic” of the various theories. I know better now (and I should have known better then), but I’ve been humbled to the fact that everyone is vulnerable to this sort of stuff. To think otherwise is deluding yourself.

– redyellowblue5031

6.  “He required no proof.”

Not me, but got a flat Earther to question his beliefs (and hopefully critically analyze them) by giving him the proof he asked for, to which he responded “mainstream science and media are lies”.

I asked why he asked for proof if he could just disregard it as lies either way, then told him that since he required no proof (or evidence against) to believe something, it made him the easiest person to deceive and that it seemed pretty sheep-like to me.

He deleted all of his flat earth comments and hasn’t posted about it since.

​ – thelife0fZ

7. “Facts and logic.”

Surprisingly enough. Facts and logic. More specifically star patterns. What we observe can not happen on a flat earth.

– Safinkodyr

8. “Five years.”

It took about five years.

It was alot of willfull ignorance on my part, I just refused to question the logic of it. In fact I spent most of my time coming up with crazy fantasies about alot of things I didn’t understand.

But you have to understand that there is just so much we don’t know about that sometimes our priority on what is real and what can be believed can get confused.

I was learning so much so fast that I really didn’t question something so inane as the world being flat. Of course it was, why wouldn’t it be.

The day that changed it forever though was when I asked my father what happens when you get to the edge of the world, he of course said the world is round like a ball.

Being about five years old I thought that made alot of sense.

– Orbitaldropbear

9. “The Bible declared the earth was flat.”

Okay I get the question is funny and all but I actually did believe, for a time, that the earth was flat.

I was raised in a very religious family, and basically came to the conclusion that the Bible declared the earth was flat, because since I believed the earth was created in seven days, the idea that God set the stars in the sky in one day made much more sense if the stars were simply points of light in a sort of snow globe formation extrapolated onto a bigger scale. Otherwise, he took one day out of the seven to make a septillion or so balls of flaming gas, all with their own planets, and set each one into galaxies before breaking for lunch. It just didn’t make sense to me that he would spend five days on one planet, and make the creation of the trillions of other stuff in the universe a little footnote.

I was confronted about this belief a couple times, only one of which wasn’t laughed off. That single person who engaged started a serious discussion, presenting much more evidence for the globe earth, and eventually told me to watch Carl Sagan. The Cosmos series was on YouTube, and once I watched it, I had to know more.

Finally, a video from the channel MinutePhysics convinced me, in no uncertain terms, that the earth was round.

– maleorderbride

10. “A rabbit hole of conspiracies.”

I feel into a rabbit hole of conspiracies.

Thankfully, physics is a mandatory subject in Switzerland, made much more sense that any « top 10 facts that prove that the earth is flat

– Lykorice

11. “Winter in Brazil and summer in the USA.”

I once had a conversation with a professional UFC fighter and outspoken Flat Earther. I tried to explain how Archimedes was able to prove the Earth was round just by using his shadow. I mentioned air travel and how Hawaii and Japan are not 20+ hours of flying apart.

But what I think got through to him the most was seasons. This particular guy was Brazilian. I explained that because the Earth is round, it’s possible to be winter in Brazil and summer in the USA and vice versa.

He nodded and stared off into the distance silently and the conversation was over.

I don’t think I “converted” him but it gave him significant pause at the very least.

– PlaneShenaniganz

12. “Sunsets.”

Sunsets man. Sunsets.

I watched all these videos read a book on it talked to people about it. I was one of them.

Everyone else was crazy for not seeing the truth.(still i have a lot of questions about how the heck this thing could possibly be a globe but thats besides the point) but i had an answer for everything.

People would ask why dont we fall off the edge? There is no edge the earths an infinite space. Why do balloons pop when they go high enough? Because theres only so much air and it sinks to the earths surface but eventually you can fly above it and then theres no pressure of the air pushing against the ballon so it pops. Hows gravity work? Gravity is made up i believe in buoyancy.

But one day somebody asked me if the sun is a spotlight in the sky then how does a sunset work. I was like uh.. and i looked into it.

Couldn’t find anything that makes sense. Sunsets turned me back

– NamelessSithNPC

13. “It appears to be.”

While having coffee with my sister one day, she revealed that she was a flat earther.

I said I wasn’t going to try and convince her otherwise because if literally millions of pieces of evidence doesn’t convince you, then nothing I can say will, but I will ask you a couple of question so that I can understand a bit more. This was the brief conversation:

Q. Do you think the sun is round? Her answer – It appears to be

Q. Do you think the moon is round? Her answer – it appears to be

Q do you think all the other planets are round? Her answer – they appear to be

​So to clarify, you’re saying that the sun, the moon and all the planets are round but we’re floating on a flat disk in the same space. Ok.

I think it made a difference from the look on her face but we’ve never spoken of it again.

– ThelastReject

14. “The heartbreak seemed genuine.”

I entertained it for a while.

What convinced me the earth was a sphere was a video I came across of a group of flat earthers doing a laser test over water. They found a stretch of level water around 2 miles long, then used level lasers to measure the distance from the water.

The test came back quite accurately indicating the earth was a sphere and not flat. They all got super upset and were crying about it.

Seems like a doable and effective test and their reaction, confusion and heartbreak seemed genuine.

– w1lliamsss

15. “Keep a secret.”

Our government couldn’t even keep Bill Clinton’s Oval Office bl*wjob a secret.

You really think they can keep something that big a secret?

– HippoShogun

I’ve heard it said that you can’t reason a person out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. I’m not sure I agree with that. I think the important thing to remember is that it almost never happens in just one conversation. It takes time. People change their minds in little bits.

What’s the craziest thing you used to believe?

Tell us in the comments.

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People Debate if Nuclear Energy Is the Best Option for the Good of the Environment

Whenever the word “nuclear” is mentioned, some people seem to get nervous because of the negative connotation it has.

But maybe nuclear energy is the ideal component we need moving forward when it comes to concerns about the environment?

I really don’t know much of anything about this subject, so I’m gonna leave it to the folks on AskReddit to debate this one for me.

Let’s take a look at what they had to say about it.

1. Here’s a hot take.

“The amount of long term waste with solar and wind is undeniably higher than with nuclear energy. Nuclear power plants in America that are not on fault lines are safe and are designed to be impossible to melt down (really).

A decentralized power system will always be more expensive than a centralized one, and we have the ability to make our grid carbon neutral in a matter of years. What are the downsides?

Why are politicians ignoring this obvious option. I’m not even talking fusion, just fission.”

2. Fear mongering.

“Of course people don’t talk about it, they hear the word nuclear and they think of Hiroshima, Chernobyl, Nagasaki.

The idea of nuclear energy has been pushed to be something feared.”

3. Fired up.

“This gets me f*cking mad.

Chernobyl was an incredibly outdated reactor already at the time it exploded, there was a human and structural mistake and were talking about a time when you were allowed to smoke inside f*cking hospitals, let’s be honest it would never happen again.

And Fukushima just makes me laugh cause it was literally caused by a freaking tsunami.”

4. Perceived as dangerous.

“You can compare it with air traffic: Aeroplanes are statistically the safest method of traveling, but when something goes wrong there are hundreds of dead people, so we perceive it as dangerous, altough it is actually the safest way of travelling.

The same goes for nuclear energy: It is the safest and most efficient way to produce energy, even when you include (very rare) terrible cases such as Chernobyl and Fukushima.”

5. The best option.

“It’s all about energy capacity per acre of land. I heard a Ted Talk and the scientist was saying that to have the UK use only solar, it would require about 1/3 of the land to be covered in solar cells.

Plus, the solar system installed in the Mojave Desert which impact the Desert Tortoise habitat. Wind farms actually ensnare bats, birds, etc. Both however, only work on small portions of land (where the sun shines or the wind blows), but even these power sources are subject to mother nature.

Nuclear on the other hand is incredibly energy dense per acre. If we had invested in nuclear years ago, we would be on generation 250. Also, nuclear energy only produces steam. And finally, we have the land use available to store nuclear energy should we finally get a national plan on how to deal with it.

Again, it’s what options do you have today to solve climate change – warts and all?

Nuclear is the best.”

6. Fission and fusion.

“People are too afraid that a nuclear bomb will go off or something, which can’t possibly happen at a power plant.

Fission and fusion are the only renewables energy types we should even bother pursuing.”

7. Those politicians…

“The 1980s scared people away, once the majority of people who remember those times are dead, nuclear will be easier to push.

Nuclear being bad was the truth for them, people don’t like when you questions something they’ve fundamentally believed for decades, they will just push the discussion away.

Politicians ain’t discussing nuclear because they know this.”

8. Some good info.

“Nuclear plants in their traditional forms have numerous technical issues that can end up prematurely shuttering the plant. Graphic cracking for example.

There’s no denying that nuclear energy is great for base load generation normally provided by thermal fossil fuel generators but the cost of building nukes in their most updated and safe hi-tech forms is enormous compared to adding renewable capacity and using hydro storage or battery with renewables!

Obviously not every energy system is the same but in modern economies by the time FF thermal generation shifts off we could engineer completely renewable systems!”

9. Stigmatized.

“Chernobyl kinda put a stick in it. However it was because of faulty construction.

Nuclear energy provides constant, clean and efficient energy. If you want green energy, go Nuclear.

Today’s process is much safer with more knowledge and understanding in past mistakes. It is the best way to go forward. It’s because of either misinformation, fear and the general media/public view on it.”

10. We need new options.

“Yes nuclear has it’s benefits and fission is simple enough that I understood it when I was 10. And safety management is done very well, using the same principles as with aviation.

But the downsides to the rare but certain f*ck ups are so serious that they change nations and the planet. And we still don’t know the long term effects of all the strontium and other fall out chemicals we all carry around in us, along with every other mammal.

Are you are aware that our governments lied their rectums off about this, ruining lives and careers? And still are? That doesn’t necessarily negate the possibility but reasonable people hesitate in the face of interest-groups-fueled government f*ckery.

Your statement about centralized vs decentralized power systems is bold.

And the long term waste – what are you talking about? And the energy involved in the entirety of each cycle (and hence, the total cost) … are you are aware of how they compare?

Ultimately we need new and better nuclear power options in general and the ultimate aim is to get to a position of having endless energy available that is cheaper than water. Development depends on it. And the trick will be creating power cycles that remove the additional carbon and other compounds from the system over time.”

11. Not the way forward.

“The future of the energy industry is not nuclear.

I’ve spent my career so far building and running electricity companies, and there are a few simple facts that have become apparent:

In modern, deregulated electricity industries, off-grid low voltage generation (think household solar panels) is rapidly reaching cost/performance parity with on-grid power. Investment in storage-based supply in batteries (as opposed to peak generation such as fossil fuel) is f*cking massive – renewables and batteries are projected to take 80% of the $15.1 trillion forecast investment in new power generation.

We will reach a tipping point in about 2035 where transporting electricity (colossal steel pylons and cables across countries) is more expensive than generating it and storing it close to the consumer What this means: Tomorrow’s electricity grids are distributed, made of many small nodes of generation and consumption, and not made of giant power plants with long inefficient transmission lines.

Today’s solar and wind plants can be spun up to utility scale in under a year. A nuclear plant has historically taken over 8 years to build and cost massive up-front capital. Nuclear plants are also designed to have operating lifetimes of 60+ years. Investing in nuclear is not only making a bet that nuclear will stay at the top of the price/kWh curve, but also that it will be there in a decade’s time and then stay there for half a century.

What this means: Nuclear is not only a losing bet based on current economic forecasts, but it’s an absolutely colossal bet that ties you down for 70 years whether you win or lose.

Pro-nuclear research is tainted by pro-nuclear lobbies and governments. Schrader-Frechette found that the majority of research that has pro-nuclear conclusions is funded by parties with conflicts of interest.

Fossil fuels are dying anyway (never fast enough, sadly), so the true question is not if we go renewable but which renewable to take, and it seems we can’t take for granted that pro-nuclear attitudes are based in unbiased critical thought. What this means: It may not even be true that nuclear energy is a good option – nevermind the best option – if we cannot trust the research.

Now, this sucks for me. I’m a huge physics fanboy, and thorium reactors and fission are absolutely my favourite ideas for future energy production. I’m attracted to space-age nuclear ideals at a very emotional level – I know how it feels – but the facts just aren’t panning out that way.

In the end, it’s not true that politicians are ignoring the “obvious” nuclear option. This is a very serious issue that very, very many of the worlds smartest are working on, and the sensible option is already the one we’re taking.

Turns out scientists are largely pretty good at what they do. Who’d have thought?”

12. Fearful of nuclear.

“The fossil feul industry obviously has a vested interest to keep people fearful of nuclear. They’ll spend lots of money on add campaigns covered with nuclear bomb explosions and zero facts.

I read recently that nuclear deaths per year is even less than some other green energies, wind iirc and that has to be a wake up call for those that are fearful. As for fossil fuel, its a no contest in comparison.

Fossil fuel has powerful lobbies, powerful corps and the republican party receives about 90% of their donations or something.”

What do you think about this?

Is nuclear energy the way to go for the good of our environment?

Talk to us in the comments and share your thoughts. Thanks!

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Doctors Discovered a New Organ Inside Our Heads by Accident

Are you ready for another dose of weird science? Doctors at the Netherlands Center have accidentally discovered another organ inside the human head.

As it turns out, this new organ happens to be another set of the many glands that help secrete who-knows-what throughout our bodies.

While conducting research on patients with head and neck cancer, oncologists in the Netherlands noticed something strange.

Using positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans, a new type of diagnostic imaging, doctors noticed two areas of the brain unexpectedly light up.

This came across as quite the surprise. So, these scientists did what scientists do best; they investigated even more.

The new findings were not an anomaly. As it turns out, all 100 of the patients scanned displayed the same results.

Researchers suspected that this new organ was a set of salivary glands – yet another addition to the three pairs we already have in our heads.

To confirm their discovery, scientists cross-analyzed their findings with Amsterdam UMC.

There, doctors searched cadavers (yep, dead people!) and found the same mysterious new glands.

This new organ, dubbed the tubarial glands, is a critical discovery for those in the oncological field. Glands can be seriously affected by radiation, so knowing where they are is essential when creating a treatment plan.

Damaging the glands during radiation can have serious effects on a person’s quality of life. Complications from radiation can include trouble swallowing, speaking, and eating.

It’s possible that doctors were unintentionally causing these glands harm before their discovery. So, this is a huge step towards creating more effective treatment.

Here’s a video about the new glands!

What’s your take on these new glands in your head? Are you totally disgusted or relatively unbothered?

Let us know in the comments!

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Garden of Flowers: 5 Best Flowers You Should Plant in Your Garden

Have you ever been to a place where you were surrounded by beautiful flowers? If not, close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself in a garden surrounded by beautiful flowers; and while you are walking around slowly, their soft petals touch your skin. It surely gives you chills, right? But did you know you can make this imagination into reality? Yes, that’s right. The most common problem in planting in the garden is not when to start or how to start, but what to plant? Some gardeners find this very stressful because they want to plant flowers that

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Scientists Successfully Reversed the Human Aging Process for the First Time

I’m one of those people who thinks that living forever – or even for an extremely long time – seems like more of a curse than a blessing.

That said, if we could live a very long time in bodies that weren’t slowly breaking down, betraying us a bit every day, well…that could change opinions.

And it turns out that, according to researchers at Tel Aviv University, the key might be as simple as the air we breathe – the scientists involved say they’ve reversed the aging process in elderly people using “oxygen therapy.”

Image Credit: Pexels

They used hyperbaric oxygen chambers to target specific cells and the DNA linked to shorter lifespans, a process that claims to have found the “holy grail” of staying young, according to their press release. They also published the results in Aging.

The therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment and reversed the effects of aging in 35 people over the age of 64.

The participants remained in the chamber for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 3 months while researchers studied its impact on senescent cells, which are associated with tissue and organ deterioration.

In addition, they measured the length of each person’s telomere, a molecule linked to premature cellular aging.

Image Credit: Pixabay

They found that the participants’ telomeres had enlarged by an average of 20%, and their senescent cells decreased by up to 37% by the end of the trial.

In layman’s terms, they were around 25 years younger than when they’d started.

The study’s co-author, Shai Efrati, spoke about the results in part of their statement.

“The significant improvement of telomere length shown…provides the scientific community with a new foundation of understanding that aging can, indeed, be targeted and reversed at the basic cellular-biological level.”

Participants did not change anything else about their lifestyles – not diets, medications, or anything else thought to impact how a person’s body handles aging.

Dr. Amir Hadanny, another of the study’s authors, believes the pressurized chamber’s brief oxygen shortages cause call regeneration.

Image Credit: Pexels

“Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and intense exercise were shown to have some inhibition effect on the expected telomere length shortening. What is remarkable to note in our study, is that in just three months of therapy, we were able to achieve such significant telomere elongation – at rates far beyond any of the current available interventions or lifestyle modifications.”

It sounds a bit like science fiction to me, but it’s just science – and the results are very real.

Welcome to the future, y’all. It sounds like more of us are going to be around to see it.

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People Whose Experiments Were Interesting and Very Accidental

If you know anything at all about science then you know that some of the greatest discoveries in history happened by accident – the microwave, x-rays, LSD, and more than a few more – so there’s nothing to say that there can’t be happy accidents in the world.

These 16 people are sort of different, because they really didn’t even mean to do the experiments at all, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love the results!

16. Frozen waterfall mist.

It looks like something out of a fantasy film.

What happens when the mist around a waterfall freezes from pics

15. He grew a pumpkin inside a mold.

This is pretty incredible.

What happens when you grow a pumkin inside a plastic mold. from pics

14. When lightning strikes beach sand.

In case you haven’t seen Sweet Home Alabama.

This is what happens when a lightning hits beach sand from interestingasfuck

13. When a cat touches a plasma ball.

Cats remain the best part of the internet.

This is what happens when a cat touches a plasma ball from interestingasfuck

12. The result of 50 mph winds and freezing temperatures combine with Lake Erie.

How do you even know which house is yours?

What happens when 50 mph winds, freezing temperatures and Lake Erie hits your house. from Damnthatsinteresting

11. This is an ordinary marble…

Heated over an open flame and then dropped into cold water.

This is what happens when you heat an ordinary marble over a flame then immediately drop it into cold water from mildlyinteresting

10. Someone is about to be mad about their chalk drawing.

But at least your tires look cool.

Sidewalk chalk on tire. from accidentalart

9. This totally looks Photoshopped!

It’s someone swinging a string of glow sticks with burning steel wool at the end, taken by a long-exposure photo. Why? Obviously because we can.

What happens when you swing a string of glow sticks with burning steel wool at the end and take a long exposure photo [photo by Chris Matthew Brady] from interestingasfuck

8. Life will find a way.

Even when that life is a half-eaten cabbage.

Here’s what happens when you leave half a cabbage in the fridge too long. from pics

7. You think you’ve seen cold water.

But you haven’t seen water THIS cold.

What happens when water gets really, really cold. from interestingasfuck

6. Pipes burst under the floor.

Everyone get those roller-scooter things from gym class!

This is what happens to a basketball court when the pipes burst from pics

5. When a frog eats a firefly.

It looks sort of magical. Unless you’re the firefly.

? This Is What Happens When Frogs Eat Fireflies from NatureIsFuckingLit

4. High voltage burns in wood.

I never get tired of these.

What happens when wood is burnt with high voltage from mildlyinteresting

3. Horizontal mirrors on a desert shack.

Almost makes you want to live in the desert, right?

This is what happens when you put horizontal mirrors on a shack in the desert from interestingasfuck

2. Lightning meets golf course flag.

That probably ruined at least one round of golf.

This Is What Happens When Lightning Strikes A Flag On A Golf Course from interestingasfuck

1. A polished coconut.

It looks so…naked.

This is what happens when you polish a coconut from mildlyinteresting

 

Some people are just charmed in this life, I suppose.

Has anything like this ever happened to you? Tell us about it in the comments!

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Nokia Won a NASA Contract for a 4G Network Based… on the Moon!

You actually read that headline right! Science is just getting weirder and weirder.

We’re one step closer to actually making the Star Wars universe a reality, since Nokia is about to put a 4G network on the Moon. Soon enough, there will be literally no excuse for any cell service to be bad.

Image Credit: Deseret

In NASA’s fifth Tipping Point solicitation, Nokia was awarded a $14.1 million contract to deploy an LTE/4G communication system on the Moon.

This would be the first ever lunar-based network of its kind. The system would assist Moon-based communications at greater speeds, further distances, and more reliability. The network will also support the operation of lunar rovers and video streaming. That’s right, soon enough we might be able to see livestreams from the Moon with minimal lag.

The network also means that astronauts in space could soon communicate more efficiently with those of us on Earth.

Don’t let the development mislead you, though. Space is by no means a dead zone. Astronauts have been able to tweet, email, and livestream pretty efficiently from the ISS since 2010.

Researchers have always aimed to keep outer space from feeling like a desolate no man’s land.

Image Credit: Pexels

Truly, the aim of this development is to further support the construction of a lunar base. With Artemis astronauts set to return to the Moon by 2024, Nokia’s network will help them conduct their necessary research with greater scope and accuracy.

Since NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine aims to have a base on the Moon by 2028, astronauts will need to work as efficiently as possible to get the job done.

Image Credit: Pexels

Nokia’s 4G network has the potential to make that happen.

What are your thoughts on this lunar 4G network? Is it inspiring or totally crazy?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

The post Nokia Won a NASA Contract for a 4G Network Based… on the Moon! appeared first on UberFacts.

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Could Radioactive Diamond Batteries Be the Answer to Nuclear Waste?

Scientists and technology companies everywhere are looking for the answer to the problem of nuclear waste – nuclear is a viable alternative to fossil fuel energy in the future, but only if we can devise a way to handle the waste, too.

The idea for this radioactive diamond battery began in 2018, when a hobby drone dropped a small package near the lip of an extremely active Sicilian volcano called Stromboli. It’s one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and has long fascinated geologists, but with the constant eruptions, collecting data near the vent has been a challenge.

Image Credit: Arkenlight

A team of researchers from the University of Bristol had the idea of building a robot volcanologist, then used a drone to ferry it to the top. It sat, passively monitoring the quakes and quivers until it was destroyed.

RIP.

The sensor pod was the side of a softball, and was powered by nuclear energy from a small, radioactive battery. They dubbed it a “dragon egg.”

Materials scientist Tom Scott and a small group of collaborators saw something more in the dragon eggs, though, and they’ve been developing a souped-up version of the egg’s nuclear battery that can last thousands of years without needing to be replaced.

Image Credit: Arkenlight

Instead of generating its energy from chemical reactions, like a typical battery, this new battery uses particles shed by radioactive diamonds that can be made from nuclear waste.

Now, the team behind this revolutionary idea is ready to commercialize this nuclear diamond battery. It’s still in a prototyping phase, but they expect to be able to mass produce them soon – in fact, the first nuclear batteries could hit the market as early as 2024.

That said, they won’t replace the batteries in your computer or laptop, most likely. Instead of generating a lot of power for a short amount of time – like traditional or lithium-ion batteries – these nuclear batteries produce smaller amounts of power over a longer time.

Image Credit: Arkenlight

They won’t create enough energy to power a cell phone, but they could provide a steady – small – drip of electricity literally forever, says Morgan Boardman, the company’s CEO.

“Can we power an electric vehicle? The answer is no. The mass of the battery would be significantly greater than the mass of the vehicle.”

That said, in something like a fire alarm, say, he expects a world where the device would need to be replaced before the battery.

As anyone who has be woken up at 3am by a chirping smoke alarm battery can tell you, that would be a welcome world indeed.

If you’re concerned about the health risks of being in close proximity to a radioactive battery, the scientists involved – and those who aren’t, like materials scientist Lance Hubbard – say there’s no reason to worry.

Image Credit: Arkenlight

“Usually just the wall of the battery is sufficient to stop any emissions. The inside is hardly radioactive at all, and that makes them very safe for people.”

There you go, folks – a safe way to recycle nuclear waste and a way to power the device in your life with low energy requirements literally forever.

Good news all the way around, if you ask me.

The post Could Radioactive Diamond Batteries Be the Answer to Nuclear Waste? appeared first on UberFacts.